He walked around the village, his Divine Thought sweeping over one household after another.
Prosperity.
This was Chu Bai’s most direct impression.
These fishermen’s homes had plenty of stored grain, and some even had silver coins stashed away.
For fishermen who lived at the mercy of the weather, these were already uncommonly good times.
But beneath this prosperity, he felt that something was missing.
’What was it?’
Chu Bai stopped, standing under an old willow tree in the center of the village, his gaze sweeping over the empty courtyards around him.
’It lacks a certain vitality. I wonder if it’s because of fear...’
The atmosphere on the threshing ground was grim and tense.
Pang Song sat upright in a Master’s Chair, a roster in his hand, his brow tightly furrowed.
Before him knelt a dozen or so fishermen, trussed up. All of them were respected village elders or the Temple Priests who led the rituals.
"Speak! When Team Two came to investigate, exactly how much silver did they take from you?"
Pang Song barked.
"My... My Lord."
An old, white-haired fisherman kowtowed, trembling. "Each household... each household paid two taels of silver. They said that as long as we paid the money, they would leave the matter of the Fairy alone..."
"Two taels of silver?"
Pang Song sneered. "Over a hundred households, so that’s more than two hundred taels. This bunch has quite the appetite."
Although he now had testimony that could solidify the extortion charges against Team Two, he wasn’t satisfied.
Because this wasn’t enough to completely nail Team Two’s Deputy Captain, let alone implicate the people behind him.
The problem was, though he had investigated for two days, he had found no trace of blood sacrifice, only that this Wild God accepted incense offerings.
"Banner Inspector Chu has arrived!"
Just then, a guard announced loudly.
Pang Song looked up. Seeing Chu Bai striding over, he quickly rose to greet him, a trace of anticipation on his face. "Banner Inspector Chu, you’re just in time! These cunning villagers have confessed. Team Two did indeed take dirty money!"
Chu Bai didn’t respond. His expression was terrifyingly grim, his gaze sweeping over the kneeling fishermen like a blade.
"Captain Pang."
Chu Bai’s voice was low. "What’s the situation? Is this Wild God involved in blood sacrifices?"
Pang Song shook his head, pointing to the roster in his hand. "I suspected it too.
So I had my men check the village’s population. Anyu Village has one hundred twenty-seven households, and all the adults are on the register. We haven’t found any missing people or signs of sacrifice."
"It seems this Wild God is ’well-behaved’ for now, just greedy for incense fire..."
"Well-behaved?"
Chu Bai sneered, cutting Pang Song off.
He walked step by step toward the lead fisherman, unleashing his powerful Spiritual Pressure without reservation, crushing the old man until he could barely breathe.
"Lord Pang, your roster... you only checked the adults, didn’t you?"
Chu Bai turned his head, looked at Pang Song, and spoke again. "Have you ever asked... where in this entire village... are the children?!"
"The children?"
Pang Song froze, subconsciously glancing around.
For the past two days, he’d been consumed with interrogating witnesses for evidence of Team Two’s bribery. His attention had been entirely on the adults and the accounts; he truly hadn’t noticed this seemingly ordinary detail.
At Chu Bai’s reminder, it suddenly dawned on him.
Among the several hundred villagers herded onto the threshing ground, every single one was an adult. Not even a half-grown child could be seen!
"Men!"
Pang Song’s expression changed drastically. He immediately turned to a trusted guard beside him and barked, "Take some men and search! Search every house in the village! Focus on finding children! Even if it’s a newborn infant, I want them found!"
"Yes, sir!"
A squad of guards took their leave, rushing into the nearby houses like a pack of wolves.
The fishermen kneeling on the ground, upon hearing the order to search, looked as if their spines had been ripped out. They trembled violently, their faces ashen.
The lead fisherman’s eyes rolled back in his head, his body teetering on the verge of collapse.
The wait was not long, but it felt excruciating.
After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the searching guards returned. Their faces were even darker than when they had left, tinged with a disbelieving horror.
"Reporting, Captain! Reporting, Patrol Banner Inspector!"
The lead guard’s voice trembled. "We’ve searched everywhere! In the dozens of nearby households, we found children’s clothes, toys, and even freshly prepared rice paste... but we didn’t find a single child!"
"I grabbed a few women hiding in their houses for questioning, but... they just cried. They couldn’t get a single word out!"
The words struck the threshing ground like a bolt from the blue.
There really were no children!
Not a single child!
’How is this possible?’
"Good... very good!"
Pang Song laughed with extreme rage, the killing intent in his eyes almost materializing.
He strode over to the old fisherman, who had already gone limp, and unleashed his powerful Spiritual Pressure without reservation, crushing the man until he could barely breathe.
"Old fool, even now, you’re still trying to hide it?!"
His voice was like a clap of thunder. "A village of over a hundred households, yet not a single child to be seen! Where did you hide them? Or... did you sell them all?!"
Before this terrifying pressure and the iron-clad truth, the lead fisherman finally broke down.
He prostrated on the ground, wailing, his voice shrill and filled with regret and despair.
"They’re gone... They’re all gone!"
"Sent away... All sent to the ’Dragon Palace’..."
"Dragon Palace?" Pang Song rushed forward and grabbed him by the collar. "What Dragon Palace? Where is it?!"
The old fisherman, with a trembling hand, pointed to the sparkling Sanmu River outside the village and cried out,
"It’s at the bottom of the river... the Sanmu Fairy’s Divine Mansion..."
"The Fairy said that as long as each household offers a ’Spiritual Child’ to serve in the Divine Mansion for three years, she will bless us with bountiful catches and calm waters... After three years, the children will be returned and even bestowed with blessings..."
"We... we had no choice! The years before were too hard. If we couldn’t catch fish, our whole families would have starved to death..."
"You animal!"
Pang Song kicked the old fisherman to the ground, trembling with rage. "Sending your own flesh and blood to be sacrifices for a Demon?
And you call it ’serving’? You bunch of lard-brained fools! Three years? Have you seen a single child come back after three years?!"
The old fisherman covered his face, his cries growing even more wretched. "No... The first group of children we sent would have been gone for exactly three years now... We were all waiting for them to come back... But... but..."
There was no need for him to finish.
Everyone understood. The children sent to the "Dragon Palace" had likely long since become withered skeletons, with not even bone fragments remaining.
This was a monstrous scam that exchanged the lives of the village’s next generation for the current one’s sordid prosperity!
What was even more terrifying was that this scam had been going on for years!
"A fine Sanmu Fairy! A fine ’calm waters and bountiful catches’!"
Chu Bai clenched his fists so tightly his knuckles turned white, the fury in his heart burning to its peak.
"Captain Pang."
Chu Bai turned to the utterly stunned Pang Song, his tone icy. "How long did Exorcism Team Two’s investigation of this matter last?"
The implication was obvious.
’Did they know and fail to report it? Were they simply incompetent? Or was it a deliberate cover-up...’
"They started several months ago. We can grill these fishermen later to find out what Team Two knew. Right now, something else is more important."
Pang Song, seething with killing intent, roared:
"Men!"
"Arrest all of these conniving villagers who abetted this evil by staying silent! Interrogate them harshly! I want to know where this so-called ’Dragon Palace’ is! And how many survivors there are!"
"Yes, sir!"
This time, the roar of the Team Three guards shook the heavens.
Even the most jaded veteran ruffian would be stirred to primal rage when faced with a crime as depraved as harming children.
Chu Bai stood his ground, watching the threshing ground descend into chaos. He looked toward the quietly flowing Sanmu River in the distance.
The river water was clear, as if nothing had ever happened.
But in Chu Bai’s eyes, beneath that water’s surface, vengeful spirits already swirled, and a blood debt had long been accumulating.
’Human sacrifice... This is no small matter. To think it’s been hidden for so long.’
’Besides the entire village being united in this, there must be someone else pulling the strings.’

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